Re question from Thomas201 re EV charging with a trailer.
Hi Thomas. I felt it would be more polite if I didn't jump on somebody elses thread with your request. So I'll quote in italics your questions and then do my best to answer them. Keep in mind a couple things.
1. I am Canadian so my answers are from a Canadian point of view reference infrastructure etc. I am not really familiar with American infrastructure except for some of the west coast.
2. We have a small, lightweight low profile trailer and and electric SUV with a relatively small battery compared to the electric half ton trucks. For better info on truck towing info I recommend reaching out to one of the many facebook EV RV towing groups. There are literally thousands of people towing RV's with EV's on those groups. From what I have seen though EV's in general are more suited to towing smaller low profile trailers. Those doing that seem to be very happy with their results.
So here is a cut and paste of your questions in bold. I'll do my best for you.
"I'll make a request to Reisender, if no response in public, I'll pm.
You have to be our most experienced EV towing expert. Could you, even if you wait till you trip is completed, write us a short book? I know you have put out a lot of info in several posts, but could you bring it all together in one?
Give us your weights, towing experiences, range in rain, snow and wind. Campground charging? Would you do it again? Buy a different TV or trailer? Do you back in and out at chargers? Drop your trailer? How about at an island charger, is it proper to block an unused charger with you trailer? Have you had to wait when all charger bays are full, very often?"
Okay. Our fully loaded weight of our trailer is 3400 pounds plus or minus 20 pounds. Our car fully loaded is about 5100 pounds including the 335 pound hitch weight. (I'll try to do this in pounds as I think you are American).
Our towing experience is about 15000 kilometers (9500 miles???) towing across Canada as well as all over BC and Vancouver Island. I have not tracked our range in rain but I'm sure it probably a little lower than dry pavement. We have never travelled in snow. We would certainly do it again. It is the best towing experience we have ever had. Tons of horsepower and torque, low centre of gravity and regenerative braking. But everyone travels their own way. Others may value other traits.
We typically charge every couple hours but many times that may be earlier depending on the charge station location. A typical charge stop is 20 to 40 minutes. A typical charge cost is anywhere from 8 to 22 dollars depending on the speed of the charger and the vendor. EG, Tesla is more expensive than BC hydro...and faster. It’s not uncommon for us to choose a slower cheaper charger if we are going to have lunch and maybe do some shopping.
We have never done a range test so not sure but I would guess at 240 kilometers travelling at 90 kmh which is how fast we travel. We have been towing for almost 40 years and generally don't tow single axle short wheel base combos much faster than that. Check on the EV truck groups for efficiency at higher speeds.
Below is an energy graph of part of our last trip. Those from BC will know this piece of road this was done on. This is highway 99 from Pemberton to Lillooet. It is also called the duffy lake road. It is known for hot brakes and overheated engines. Not a 100 percent sure of the data but I believe it is a 1700 meter changer in elevation and then back down. Lots of switchbacks and 13 percent grades in each direction. Not for the faint of heart. We could smell the brakes of the trailer SUV combo in front of us. We never used our brake pedal once on the trip. Regeneration did all the braking. That is pretty much standard towing with an EV. We have a Tekonsha brake controller and in panic stops it does its job well. We left Pemberton with 89 percent on the battery and we arrived at the BC hydro charger in Lilloet at 50 percent. So roughly 40 percent of the battery to go 101 kilometres. Here is the graph. Can you tell where the 13 percent grade started? :)
Here is the BC hydro charger in Lillooet. This kind of segways to your next question. Parking at chargers. Most chargers do not have pull thrus. However some are better designed than others for trailer access. BC hydro and FLO frequently have pull along chargers that allow simply pulling alongside and charging. Others actually have a double stall like this one.
(By the way, that is an electric motorcycle (harley) charging in the other stall)
This is one type of trailer stall from tesla. The charger is separated from the rest of the chargers by about 30 feet to allow for pull alongside charging. These are rare.
Tesla does have other drive straight in trailer stalls at some of their chargers but they are meant for small trailers only. Maybe 18 to 20 feet max. You have to back out of these. These are more common although usually only one per supercharger location.
FLO also has many sites that are reasonably suitable for towing.
Another BC hydro Charger, pull along
Neither Petrocan of Electrify Canada have trailer friendly stalls so we rarely use them.
The reality is many times we have to do this kind of thing. We only do this if the supercharger is quiet or mostly quiet. We have never inconvenienced anyone and we simply unhook if we think we might inconvenience someone. It takes about a minute to unhook and two minutes to hookup, and that is with a second person checking thins over. This is Sault St Marie Ontario.
Another example. If you do this right you can get away with only blocking two chargers but its quite often three depending on conditions. Again, courtesy and manners are important when assessing the situation.
In answer to your question if we have ever had to wait for an empty bay? No. Not yet.
We have come close a couple times. We have run into others towing with EV's at smaller charger sites like this one in Port Alberni on Vancouver island. One of us would have had to unhook. There are a ton of EV's hitting the road in BC (fastest adoption rate in North America so it will be an ongoing challenge to keep up with growth. So far BC hydro, Tesla and FLO are doing that pretty good and BC hydro continues its buildout towards Alaska and Yukon. Big job. It will be a few years.
We tend to stay at provincial parks about half the time so no services. But we do charge when we are at private campgrounds. We always ask and we only plug one thing in at a time. EV or RV not both. Almost always we only rent 30 amp sites. A tesla can only draw max 24 amps form a TT30 plug so at best one can charge maybe 50 percent overnight...usually less. Handy though. Here is an example. Notice only the EV is plugged in.
Feel free to ask any questions although I probably can't help with the electric half ton questions as I don't have one. From those I have talked to and seen, the smaller, lighter and low profile trailers are a good fit for the electric half tons and SUV's. With what is on the market right now for electric tow vehicles If I had to tow a larger family sized trailer I would tow with a gas or diesel truck. In the mean time we have probably RVed further than most RVers this summer and we have done it all in our little EV RV combo. Great summer and we have been to some amazing places.
And now a little game. This is a Canadian national park. In the background are American mountains. Where are we?
Cheers all.
(PS For those who are interested we posted in roads and routes on our fall trip thru BC, Up Vancouver island and the sunshine coast. Great trip, lots of pics. Here is a link.
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/30363580.cfm
JMHO
1. I am Canadian so my answers are from a Canadian point of view reference infrastructure etc. I am not really familiar with American infrastructure except for some of the west coast.
2. We have a small, lightweight low profile trailer and and electric SUV with a relatively small battery compared to the electric half ton trucks. For better info on truck towing info I recommend reaching out to one of the many facebook EV RV towing groups. There are literally thousands of people towing RV's with EV's on those groups. From what I have seen though EV's in general are more suited to towing smaller low profile trailers. Those doing that seem to be very happy with their results.
So here is a cut and paste of your questions in bold. I'll do my best for you.
"I'll make a request to Reisender, if no response in public, I'll pm.
You have to be our most experienced EV towing expert. Could you, even if you wait till you trip is completed, write us a short book? I know you have put out a lot of info in several posts, but could you bring it all together in one?
Give us your weights, towing experiences, range in rain, snow and wind. Campground charging? Would you do it again? Buy a different TV or trailer? Do you back in and out at chargers? Drop your trailer? How about at an island charger, is it proper to block an unused charger with you trailer? Have you had to wait when all charger bays are full, very often?"
Okay. Our fully loaded weight of our trailer is 3400 pounds plus or minus 20 pounds. Our car fully loaded is about 5100 pounds including the 335 pound hitch weight. (I'll try to do this in pounds as I think you are American).
Our towing experience is about 15000 kilometers (9500 miles???) towing across Canada as well as all over BC and Vancouver Island. I have not tracked our range in rain but I'm sure it probably a little lower than dry pavement. We have never travelled in snow. We would certainly do it again. It is the best towing experience we have ever had. Tons of horsepower and torque, low centre of gravity and regenerative braking. But everyone travels their own way. Others may value other traits.
We typically charge every couple hours but many times that may be earlier depending on the charge station location. A typical charge stop is 20 to 40 minutes. A typical charge cost is anywhere from 8 to 22 dollars depending on the speed of the charger and the vendor. EG, Tesla is more expensive than BC hydro...and faster. It’s not uncommon for us to choose a slower cheaper charger if we are going to have lunch and maybe do some shopping.
We have never done a range test so not sure but I would guess at 240 kilometers travelling at 90 kmh which is how fast we travel. We have been towing for almost 40 years and generally don't tow single axle short wheel base combos much faster than that. Check on the EV truck groups for efficiency at higher speeds.
Below is an energy graph of part of our last trip. Those from BC will know this piece of road this was done on. This is highway 99 from Pemberton to Lillooet. It is also called the duffy lake road. It is known for hot brakes and overheated engines. Not a 100 percent sure of the data but I believe it is a 1700 meter changer in elevation and then back down. Lots of switchbacks and 13 percent grades in each direction. Not for the faint of heart. We could smell the brakes of the trailer SUV combo in front of us. We never used our brake pedal once on the trip. Regeneration did all the braking. That is pretty much standard towing with an EV. We have a Tekonsha brake controller and in panic stops it does its job well. We left Pemberton with 89 percent on the battery and we arrived at the BC hydro charger in Lilloet at 50 percent. So roughly 40 percent of the battery to go 101 kilometres. Here is the graph. Can you tell where the 13 percent grade started? :)
Here is the BC hydro charger in Lillooet. This kind of segways to your next question. Parking at chargers. Most chargers do not have pull thrus. However some are better designed than others for trailer access. BC hydro and FLO frequently have pull along chargers that allow simply pulling alongside and charging. Others actually have a double stall like this one.
(By the way, that is an electric motorcycle (harley) charging in the other stall)
This is one type of trailer stall from tesla. The charger is separated from the rest of the chargers by about 30 feet to allow for pull alongside charging. These are rare.
Tesla does have other drive straight in trailer stalls at some of their chargers but they are meant for small trailers only. Maybe 18 to 20 feet max. You have to back out of these. These are more common although usually only one per supercharger location.
FLO also has many sites that are reasonably suitable for towing.
Another BC hydro Charger, pull along
Neither Petrocan of Electrify Canada have trailer friendly stalls so we rarely use them.
The reality is many times we have to do this kind of thing. We only do this if the supercharger is quiet or mostly quiet. We have never inconvenienced anyone and we simply unhook if we think we might inconvenience someone. It takes about a minute to unhook and two minutes to hookup, and that is with a second person checking thins over. This is Sault St Marie Ontario.
Another example. If you do this right you can get away with only blocking two chargers but its quite often three depending on conditions. Again, courtesy and manners are important when assessing the situation.
In answer to your question if we have ever had to wait for an empty bay? No. Not yet.
We have come close a couple times. We have run into others towing with EV's at smaller charger sites like this one in Port Alberni on Vancouver island. One of us would have had to unhook. There are a ton of EV's hitting the road in BC (fastest adoption rate in North America so it will be an ongoing challenge to keep up with growth. So far BC hydro, Tesla and FLO are doing that pretty good and BC hydro continues its buildout towards Alaska and Yukon. Big job. It will be a few years.
We tend to stay at provincial parks about half the time so no services. But we do charge when we are at private campgrounds. We always ask and we only plug one thing in at a time. EV or RV not both. Almost always we only rent 30 amp sites. A tesla can only draw max 24 amps form a TT30 plug so at best one can charge maybe 50 percent overnight...usually less. Handy though. Here is an example. Notice only the EV is plugged in.
Feel free to ask any questions although I probably can't help with the electric half ton questions as I don't have one. From those I have talked to and seen, the smaller, lighter and low profile trailers are a good fit for the electric half tons and SUV's. With what is on the market right now for electric tow vehicles If I had to tow a larger family sized trailer I would tow with a gas or diesel truck. In the mean time we have probably RVed further than most RVers this summer and we have done it all in our little EV RV combo. Great summer and we have been to some amazing places.
And now a little game. This is a Canadian national park. In the background are American mountains. Where are we?
Cheers all.
(PS For those who are interested we posted in roads and routes on our fall trip thru BC, Up Vancouver island and the sunshine coast. Great trip, lots of pics. Here is a link.
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/30363580.cfm
JMHO
